


Souls and the Afterlife

by unrelatedchickenfire



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24387106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unrelatedchickenfire/pseuds/unrelatedchickenfire
Summary: An essay considering the effects of souls and the afterlife.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Souls and the Afterlife

**Author's Note:**

> This is an essay I wrote for English 9th grade in the States, at some point in late 2018. I got 94/100, with points deducted because my teacher would rather die than give me a 100. Anyway, if this seems interesting, you can place it under your analytical reading lamp (assuming you are using a kindle like all normal AO3 users and not a computer like some genetic freak). This is through and through an "informative essay." So, totally not written with zero sources and just my background knowledge. So, totally well-researched and even peer-reviewed at Harvard. Yes. You get what I mean. Hurry along, either out the page or into this old artifact.

Souls and the Afterlife  


Vitalism is the theory that the phenomena of life are dependent on an external force that exists distinctly from chemical or physical forces. Its existence cannot be proven, because it may be beyond the contemporary human intellect or merely be a product of the humans’ bouts of creativity. The afterlife could be some place where all the souls can begin anew to resume existence, in the form of what is vaguely known as a soul. It could also be reincarnation: living again. Believing in such wondrous concepts is a privilege, and I say this because many people can’t, and thus, its significance varies greatly among people. Most scientists have the confidence to be dismissive about souls, some people can thoroughly grasp and experience its extraordinary features, and there are others who struggle to come up with even a flimsy assumption. Souls and the afterlife may be decided for believers through religious teachings, or they may be lightly considered a natural part of life. The confirmation of an afterlife is normally the most ostensible advantage of believing in religions. Knowing there exists a God can facilitate believing in an afterlife. Nevertheless, these beliefs are the cause of many detrimental mindsets and lifestyles, or simply skepticism which hold no merit. There can be more ramifications in believing in souls and the afterlife than there are clear advantages, contrary to a lot of religions’ aspirations.  


Believing in souls and the afterlife is of great comfort and convenience to people. There is little to worry about when it comes to what will happen after death, because something objectively wonderful awaits the believers, offering solace to compensate for the otherwise terrifying end that looms over everyone. However, as people assume the position of believing in such superstitious matters, like any other, they cannot help but carefully cherry-pick ideas that corroborate the ones they hold. Narrow-mindedness and illogical thought processes can develop. It can be a matter of convenience, but more often, it has only to do with actual belief and what a person finds more plausible. Of course, as in all religions, the fact that members who share similar views encourage or assure each other plays a pivotal role in setting an individual’s outlook. Persuasion and mob mentality can drastically influence and win over young, inexperienced, and uninformed minds. Not only does being less open-minded or accepting hinder people’s abilities to expand, it can also cause people to fight on account of it, or more accurately, use it as an excuse for war. Having different beliefs has been the main catalyst for war for as long as Homo sapiens have quarreled. Another problem is that these groundless topics may only be sources of wholly unnecessary skepticism for all the people who do not initially have firm convictions, opposed to the believers who do and can be completely reassured. The confusion may cause paranoia, existential anxiety, or just pure indecisiveness. The extreme polarization that exists around the concepts also provokes a lot of frivolous pondering in skeptical people due to overconfident claims and their supposed credibility. Subjects of almost no relevance or influence upon our daily lives are largely better left unexplored when there is a complete lack of solid evidence to make any theories or arguments.  


Usually derived from religions, moral principles are provided to those who anticipate the afterlife. As some actions are seen as virtuous and some sinful, believers live accordingly to the morals to fulfill their piety. This lifestyle, of implementing various principles to achieve the highest of virtues, with the unforgettable incentive of the afterlife, does help countless people live meaningfully for themselves. However, problems inevitably persist in the moral teachings and how they are received. First of all, while some of the moral advice may be quite rational and naturally essential in many societies, if the authenticity of religious texts was disregarded, in that records of God or gods and the supernatural were our creations, all the lessons could be seen as arbitrarily decided by random preachers or writers of the past. There is absolutely no saying in whether the moral ethics and sins are truths of this world or simply thoughtful constructions of devout scholars seeking to spread “good” lessons that may not even be helpful for the unknowable afterlife. If souls and the afterlife do not exist, then those religious lessons would not be truths or be necessary to our lives. Besides their questionable nature, only as religious advice, rules, or moral compasses, they may be restrictive to the happiness of certain individuals by prohibiting benign things in an unreasonable manner, such as the sinfulness or abomination of homosexuality in Christianity. Even when some way of being causes nearly no harm, religious viewpoints can disagree and limit the freedom of people if they particularly believed in that religion with its concept of the afterlife. For another example, ignorance can be a mortal sin in Christianity, which is troubling for every Christian as humans are always ignorant of certain knowledge. Another problem that arises from the obtaining and practicing of preconceived morals is the missed opportunity for the individual to figure out and develop their own conscience, with which they might be able to live a life more apt to their critical judgements. People should not mindlessly follow religious morals in fear of being excluded from or punished in an afterlife.  


As souls and the afterlife offer greater futures for people upon death, it encourages many believers to live more diligently, practically, and optimistically. Ironically, for particular groups of people around the world, it may turn out to be the opposite: impractical. In Buddhism, believing in trying to gain enlightenment and nirvana requires the Buddhist monks to meditate for extensive periods. This does bring about bliss and peace in the monks, but from a completely irrelevant perspective from them, it can be said that they are wasting time trying to reach the theoretical nirvana as the time could be spent economically contributing to society or the intellectual development of humanity. In other cases, religious texts and the afterlife can be incorrectly interpreted to support absurd causes in extremists. Terrorism partially happens due to a grotesque interpretation of the Quran, in which killing of more people before suicide is increasingly rewarded for violent jihadists. Another problem is that people intentionally give up or try less to improve their current lives because of the promise of reincarnation. Specifically, the reincarnation system of Hinduism is thought to perpetually reincarnate every soul to be granted a “better” or “worse” life depending on the karma, which is the accumulation of all “good” and “bad” intents. This contributes to the maintenance of the caste system in India as Hinduism assures the people born and living in the lower castes of reincarnation to higher castes or wealthier lives, as long as they work honestly and obediently without ruining their karma.  


The culturally and individually diverse ways of viewing souls and the afterlife are not merely trifling differences in people that should be overlooked. They can easily become the cause or excuse for multitudes of unjust iniquities. Now the question is: How can we alter people’s perspectives for the better? It sounds quite simple, but it probably isn’t. Every country should try to organize and provide public education in which various facts and theories are both taught and distinguished, because theories can be as influential to humans as facts. What this populous world, forever conflicted, needs is as many people becoming open-minded and exposed to every idea as possible before getting to decide if they would like to believe in a certain doctrine regarding souls and the afterlife. This is endlessly imperative for the discovery and expansion of human knowledge, as more impartial people means more people questioning the fundamental values in life and striving to seek proper truths.

**Author's Note:**

> Even after two and a half years, I surprisingly agree with most points my past self made. However, I do have qualms now about how healthy religions and believing in souls and the afterlife is. It may be more beneficial than harmful for individuals, even if among societies it can foment strife or ignorance, and thus stagnation. But putting aside all that, in conclusion, it's up to every one of you to choose what makes you happier: Cold science or gentle fairy tales.


End file.
